1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to methods for configuring electronic devices, particularly terminals, and an arrangement for configuring electronic devices, particularly terminals.
2. Background of the Related Art
The use of plastic cards with integrated chips, also called “smart cards,” is generally known. Normally, the owner of such a card has access to areas or data which are accessible only to a limited circle of persons, particularly only one specific person. These cards contain data which are needed for this function and are therefore considered sensitive data or secret data.
For this reason, such chip cards usually contain both a private data sector, which can only be accessed after a successful authentication, e.g. the input of a “personal identification number” (PIN) or a biometric authentication, and a public sector, which is accessible even without authentication.
However, smart cards are also used to automatically configure and customize products and systems. For this purpose, configuration data are stored in the data storage memory of the smart card, with sensitive data stored in a similar manner in the secured private sector.
US 2001/00 15 19 A1 describes a secure configuration of a remote-programmable gate array, wherein the configuration data are encrypted and stored on an external memory chip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,436 B1 describes the configuration of an electronic device, wherein the configuration data are stored on a smart card.
This approach has the disadvantage that when the system is fully automated and is to be configured without any user action, e.g., because the system lacks an appropriate interface to enter a PIN, the configuration data still have to be protected.
This is the case, for instance, with the Siemens Hosted scenarios and BiaB (Band in a Box), where first of all a web server must be set up in the system, so that a PIN can be entered via the web browser. Setting up the web server, in turn, requires configuring various subsystems using passwords and shared secrets. If the configuration data are stored in the public sector of the smart card, there is a risk that, if the card is lost, e.g., during transport or in the customer's environment, sensitive data can be read and compromised.
Problems arise, too, when the product or system has to be (pre)configured first so that authentication of the smart card becomes possible.